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Sharing files & printer in a wireless network

I have a Windows XP PC with Zone Alarm Free V8 & connected to a Canon printer. I have Virgin cable 10Mb broadband and recently converted this to wireless. More recently, I bought a Windows 7 laptop with McAfee and connected it wirelessly to the internet without any problems. I am now trying to share files and the printer between the 2 computers. On the laptop, I can view shared files resident on my PC but it only works if I disable ZA. If I try to do it with ZA enabled, I get an error message: "Windows cannot access \\xxx" where xxx = the name of my PC.
I have looked in the Help and on this Forum but I can't find a solution that I understand. I would appreciate some more basic help.
The ZA/Firewall/Zones table has 9 entries as follows (truncated a bit to save typing):
VIA Ethernet Adapter, 0.0.0.0, Adapter Subnet, Trusted
Netgear WG111 adapter, 192..., Adapter Subnet, Internet
Loopback Adapter,127..., IP Address, Trusted
DNS Server,62..., IP Address, Trusted (This line is repeated 5 times with different IP adresses)
DHCP Server, 62..., IP Address, Trusted.

Re: Sharing files & printer in a wireless network

Re: Sharing files & printer in a wireless network

Originally Posted by fax

Set 192.168.X.X. as trusted... It is your LAN.

Fax

Thanks for your reply. I did this but it didn't seem to work fully i.e. if I look in Windows Explorer/Network on the W7 laptop, my PC (and hence the shared files) is not displayed. However, if I do Start/Search and enter the name of my PC, the shared files appear in the Search window.
I read somewhere else that I should add a new trusted subnet to ZA using my IP address and this seems to work up to a point. Again, if I do Start/Search on the laptop, I can display the shared files and I can Open them in the MS Works Word Processor but they don't always appear in Windows Explorer/Network. They do sometimes appear after a delay or after I have Opened them in Works.
I would appreciate any further thoughts!

Re: Sharing files & printer in a wireless network

On your Windows 7 system, make sure that Network Discovery, File Sharing, and Public Folder Sharing are on, and that Password Protected Sharing is off (unless you want to set this up, which requires an additional account set up in Windows to use to log in when trying to access shared files).

Re: Sharing files & printer in a wireless network

Originally Posted by WickedGirl

On your Windows 7 system, make sure that Network Discovery, File Sharing, and Public Folder Sharing are on, and that Password Protected Sharing is off (unless you want to set this up, which requires an additional account set up in Windows to use to log in when trying to access shared files).

Since my last post I have managed to view shared files on the laptop and print to the shared printer attached to my PC. My PC still does not appear immediately in Windows Explorer on the laptop but it usually turns up eventually.
All 4 settings above were on but I have now set Password Protected Sharing off. This has allowed me to display shared laptop files on the PC. Previously, I couldn't do this because a window popped up asking for a user name & a password but I don't have a password set on the laptop. Now the pop up does not appear and I can view laptop files.
Thanks for your help.